Film Double Feature at the Queen

November 18, 2018 @ 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm

In conjunction with The Queen Theatre in downtown Bryan and with support from LAUNCH, we are pleased to be able to close out our week-long celebration with a special double feature screening of James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Though not the first film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel, James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein has nevertheless come to be regarded as the definitive depiction of that horrifying but also pitiable creature. The image of Frankenstein’s creature shambling, arms out, in a mindless drive toward destruction departs from the novel’s more sympathetic rendering of the monster’s deep anger and pain at being rejected by those meant to love him. And yet, though the film insists upon the monster’s fundamental criminality, Karloff’s subtle performance allows us the slightest glimpses of deeper emotions, hinting at the coexistence of monstrosity and tenderness within him.

The film’s 1935 sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, expands on these themes by raising the possibility of the creature’s finding companionship in another such as himself. The introduction of gender into the moral dilemmas presented in the original text raise a host of new questions about birth, death, parenthood, heterosexuality, monstrosity, and desire.

However, one of Frankenstein’s most enduring victories is its ability to bring these philosophical problems out of the level of abstraction and to make them real, immediate, and touching. James Whale’s adaptations are, in that sense, true progeny of Shelley’s original novel.